Hamas and the Situation in Gaza

Aila w Sadiqi,
I'm sure many of you have recently heard about the Israelis blockade
of Gaza and the humanitarian disaster that continues to unfold. Every
article I've read about this issue has been atrocious. The journalism
about the crisis in Gaza, and the situation here generally, is worse
than it was before the war in Iraq. Journalists were so excited about
covering the war, they neglected their responsibility to question the
administrations "facts" and motives.
The current situation in Gaza is largely a product of what happened on
January 26th, 2006. On that day, Hamas won a majority in the
Palestinian parliament. Specifically, they won 70 seats in a 136
member Parliament. This happened despite the fact that the US
secretly funneled 2 million dollars to the coffers of Fatah (the other
major political party). Hamas won the election for a number of
reasons. The most cited reason is that corruption in Fatah reached
epidemic proportions, and Palestinians wanted to punish them for
lining their own pockets at everyone else's expense. Hamas also
gained a lot of respect in Palestinian society for developing and
running a series of very effective social welfare programs. Many
Palestinians were also frustrated because Israel failed to abide by
most of its obligations under both the Camp David and Oslo Accord
peace frameworks, while Palestinians continued to act in good faith
despite the lack of reciprocity.
Following Hamas' victory in Palestinian elections in 2006, the US and
Israel pursued a policy agenda designed to start a civil war within
Palestine. Israel arrested 27 parliamentarians before they served a
day in office. This brought the total number of the Palestinian
parliamentarians in Israeli jails to 40, a third of the entire
parliament. There was also a campaign to arrest many of the
ministers, a fourth of whom were also put in prison. In addition to
arresting newly elected Hamas parliamentarians, Israel and the US
started shipping truckloads of weapons to Fatah militias. Israel,
with the support of the US, gave Fatah the green light to start
assassinating Hamas politicians and party members. Can you imagine
this happening in the United States? What would you think after
reading the headline "A Day After Democrats Win a Majority in the
Senate, Russian Forces Seize 33 senators and 106 House Members."
"Russians Give Republicans Tanks to Destroy Democratic Headquarters,
and Donate Sniper Rifles to Kill Senators." Israel and the United
States successfully started a civil war, rendering the elections
meaningless. To protect themselves from being killed or imprisoned,
Hamas' leadership fled to the Gaza strip and took over.
The Gaza strip is a small area, geographically distinct from the West
Bank, completely surrounded by a wall. For the Israelis, taking out
the remaining Hamas leadership literally became like shooting fish in
a barrel. Israel stopped short of eliminating all of Hamas'
leadership for a number of reasons. In short, Israel uses the myths
about Hamas to legitimize the conflict narratives that best serve
Israel. When Hamas was founded in 1987, both of Israel's secret
services, the Shin Bet and Mossad, supported its early development.
Israel initially supported Hamas as part of a divide and conquer
strategy, namely, to stand in opposition to the PLO (Palestinian
Liberation Organization) and Fatah. The Israeli secret service also
admitted supporting Hamas because they wanted to give "a religious
slant to the conflict, in order to make the West believe that the
conflict was between Jews and Muslims." Khaled Meshal, the current
leader of Hamas, constantly reiterates the fact that this conflict is
not about ethnicity or religion: "Our message to the Israelis is this:
We do not fight you because you belong to a certain faith or culture.
Jews have lived in the Muslim world for 13 centuries in peace and
harmony; they are in our religion "the people of the book," who have a
covenant from God and his messenger, Muhammad (peace be upon him), to
be respected and protected. Our conflict with you is not religious
but political. We have no problem with Jews who have not attacked us —
our problem is with those who came to our land, imposed themselves on
us by force, destroyed our society and banished our people."
People argue that Hamas should be excluded from the political process
for two reasons, that is to say, they refuse to recognize Israel, and
have killed civilians. Virtually every news outlet continues to
peddle the Israeli accusation that "Hamas doesn't recognize Israel."
It is true that in its founding charter Hamas refused to recognize
Israel, but their politics and ideology have changed significantly
over the past 19 years. In 2005 Hamas declared it would stop armed
struggle if Israel simply abided by previous agreements and recognized
the 1967 borders. The real question is, does Israel recognize
Palestine? Israel continues to steal land that even the Israeli
supreme court says isn't theirs. A third of Palestine's
parliamentarians are festering in Israeli prisons. Israel and the US
organized, armed, and funded a group known as the "dahlan faction," to
overthrow Hamas after they won the elections. The Israelis have
divided the West Bank and Gaza Strip into a series of open air
prisons. A recent Israeli military strategy document, printed in the
Israeli paper Haaretz, said that Israel should try "preventing
elections in the PA (Palestinian Authority), even at the cost of a
confrontation with the US and international community." They are
readying themselves for the forced dissolution of Palestine's entire
government. Israel is not just calling for Palestine to be wiped off
the map, it is carrying out that agenda on a daily basis. The
Israelis are literally destroying Palestinian homes, political
institutions, and any chance of having a viable state, all while
starving the people into submission.

The next reason cited for banning Hamas is its use of terrorism. If
we use the common definition of terrorism, namely, the use of violence
for coercion, nearly every nation on the planet would be involved in
terrorism, the Bush doctrine being the clearest example. What I mean
to say is that terrorism is a subjective designation, there are no
standards for its application, and when there are standards, they are
applied selectively. Every Israeli Prime Minister and President for
the last 60 years has the blood of civilians on their hands.
According to an Israeli commission (Kahan Commission), the former
Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, bears "personal responsibility"
for the massacre of over 2000 civilians in the Sabra and Shatila
refugee camps. The commission determined that he should resign and
never serve in public office again. At the time he was forced to
resign, but he later went on to become prime minister from 2001 to
2006. Ariel Sharon was responsible for a massacre comparable to 9/11
in terms of civilians killed, and he received 18 billion dollars in
aid from the US during his time in office.
We're paying the Israelis 3 billion dollars a year to trample all over
human rights, and US policy goals in the middle east. If Israel is
really our friend, it's time we show the government some tough love,
and start by withholding aid. If you really care about your alcoholic
friend, do you buy them another bottle of jack daniels or sign them up
for treatment. We need to take Israel to rehab whether they like it
or not.

Sincerely,
Mike